(This article refers to a cataclysmic event called the Rift, whereby Varaeti and Fyan became the separate nations they are today. The modern calendar years are counted as B.R. and A.R. for Before the Rift and After the Rift. This year is 988 A.R.) It's common knowledge that the island nations of Varaeti and Fyan are enemies, with only the Fisian Sea between them keeping full-out war at bay. What's not common knowledge is that this was not always the case. Nearly a thousand years ago, Fyan and Varaeti were one nation, located on a single island continent. But with something so historically important, why does no one know? The reality is that nearly all the information about this time was lost during the Rift. Even the long-lived Sorcerers have died, taking their knowledge with them to their graves. The oldest living Sorcerer today, the Fyanish Court Sorcerer Mahliz, was born nearly five hundred years after the Rift. However, with time, patience, and a lot of effort, certain historians have been able to piece together most of the events of that resulted in such drastic change...

Initially, there was one large island in the south of the Enladí Ocean. It was densely populated, with the capital of the country in the northeastern area, near the edge of the northern mountain ridge. Both the original country name and language have been lost - although a very few rare documents have been discovered and preserved. These are likely the remains of various Sorcerers' notes, since no other printing would have survived such a great length of time buried in the earth.

Most unfortunately, however, the Sorcerer whose notes would have been most helpful and informative eliminated everything he had when he destroyed his study during a failed spell experiment. The actual spell attempted is unknown, but the explosive results wiped out the Sorcerer, his study, the town in which he lived, and indeed created a blast radius so severe that the land itself cracked deeply into the depths of the earth. The resulting earthquakes tore a rift all the way down the middle of the island. The waters of the Enladí rushed in from both north and south, further separating the two sections of land. The epicenter of the explosion filled with water.

By the time the land finally settled, the western half (what is now Varaeti) and the eastern half (now Fyan) had been pushed several hundred miles apart. What had been the center of the country was now a deep rift, filled with what became known as the Fisian Sea.

The few isles of land that remained scattered within the Sea were initially still a part of the double-island nation, but pirates laid claim to them before more than a few years had passed. Similarly, while the two islands attempted to remain one nation, a few years proved that the difference in resources (as the Sorcerer's destruction had reshaped the surviving land as well), the distance from each other, and evolving views on how to handle various affairs eventually convinced the two islands to become their own separate nations. Rivalry was quick to follow, and the relationship quickly deteriorated.